Plea offers were made but not taken, so former DeKalb County School Superintendent Crawford Lewis, one-time district chief operating officer Pat Reid and her ex-husband, architect Tony Pope, will go on trial on racketeering charges Oct. 28, prosecuting and defense attorneys told a judge Friday.
Because DeKalb Superior Court Judge Cynthia Becker had set Friday as “D-Day (for) defendants to enter a plea, it wasn’t until today (that) we were sure the defendants would go on trial,” Assistant District Attorney Kelly Hill said.
“I want to make sure,” Becker said, asking prosecutors to announce the maximum punishment each could face if they are convicted of all the charges pending against them.
Their lawyers said each of the three understood what was at stake.
Lewis, Reid and Pope are accused of conspiring to steer tens of millions of dollars for construction projects at Columbia High School and the McNair Cluster Elementary School to Pope’s firm, to businesses he was affiliated with and to Reid’s friends. Prosecutors say Reid abused her authority over school construction to manipulate scores on contract bids so her husband would win business. And the indictment alleges that Lewis knew what was happening but did nothing to stop her.
Lewis and Pope also are charged with theft by taking because prosecutor allege they bought their county-owned cars for cut-rate prices after tax dollars were used for repairs and upgrades such as new tires. The indictment also says Lewis used his county-issued credit card for personal expenses, and Lewis and Pope interfered with the investigation.
Hill said Lewis and Reid stand to be sentenced to 65 years in prison if they are convicted of racketeering and all three counts of theft by taking by a government employee. Pope could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison if he is convicted of the one racketeering charge and one count of theft by taking, the prosecutor said.
The hearing Friday was to clear up most of the loose ends as the case moves toward the start of jury selection in little more than two weeks, 3 1/2 years after the three were first indicted in 2010. The original indictment has been revised twice, in the spring of last year and again on July 18.
via Pleas offered but not taken in DeKalb racketeering case | www.myajc.com.
Comments ( 0 )